Back in 2017, the Seattle doom duo Bell Witch absolutely fucked us up with Mirror Reaper, an album that consisted of one funereal, monolithic 84-minute track. You will probably not be surprised then, to learn that the new Bell Witch song is 19 minutes long. For this band, that’s not even that much of a time commitment.

Later this month, the Bell Witch will follow Mirror Reaper with a new album called Stygian Bough Volume I. The new album is a full-length collaboration with their Seattle friend and collaborator Erik Moggridge, a dark folk musician who records under the name Aerial Ruin. The album is five tracks long, and we can probably expect most of those tracks to be long. We’ve already posted the early track “Heaven Torn Low II (The Toll).” That one ran eight and a half minutes, and it was more of a mood piece. Today, Bell Witch and Aerial Ruin have shared album opener “The Bastard Wind,” which is 19 minutes long and which actually plays as a song.

“The Bastard Wind” is a real epic, with rises and falls and peaks and valleys. It starts as a soft, ritualistic hymn. From there, it builds and builds into a swirling, elemental cacophony. It’s got multiple movements, but the whole thing hangs together. Like the best epics, it sweeps you away to another place. At times, it’s absolutely beautiful. Check it out below.

Stygian Bough Volume I is out 6/26 on Profound Lore.